Pray for Divine Intervention
Here I further define the mechanics for Divine Intervention.
This is a reaction that a member can attempt once after attending a ritual/ceremony [refresh after attending a ceremony, like having a Long Rest.] The hero can pray to the gods for divine intervention over a specific action, difficulty, or indirect aid, information, and guidance. The player rolls a D100; if under their Piety Score, then the gods act to the request; if over their Piety Score, then nothing. You cannot use luck, inspiration or any type of advantage to making this roll. Magic holy items and hollowed ground can modify your Scores.
This is a reaction that a member can attempt once after attending a ritual/ceremony [refresh after attending a ceremony, like having a Long Rest.] The hero can pray to the gods for divine intervention over a specific action, difficulty, or indirect aid, information, and guidance. The player rolls a D100; if under their Piety Score, then the gods act to the request; if over their Piety Score, then nothing. You cannot use luck, inspiration or any type of advantage to making this roll. Magic holy items and hollowed ground can modify your Scores.
Favor: If a Hero has favor from a god, then the god's favor score is added to the Piety Score %. If the roll is above the hero's Piety Score but under the added favor score, then that god personally intervenes. [EXMPL: Tharg's Piety Score is 16, he has Favor with Gru of 4. If he rolls % of 17-20, Gru will intervene.] Should a Hero have more than one god favoring them, the highest favor is added first then the next highest.
Ceremonies: These are public affairs that require a cleric/paladin/druid to lead their subjects through; holidays, life-stages, or personal requests. All of these require some witnessing from fellow members of the same religion. Here is the example of the Prosilites:
- Holidays: The Prosil religion has public holidays at the end of each season, so members can give tribute to the gods whom granted them success through that season. Additionally, a month later, there is a holiday to give tribute to the gods whom have set the members up for success this current season. There might be a few local festivals that the whole public participates.
- Life-Stages: These are ceremonies that acknowledge a member of the clan's progression through life. Birth, coming of age, mirage, promotions/leadership, funeral. The higher the status, the more public expectation is demanded.
- Requests: members can request a personal ceremony of tribute to a god or other minor bequests, besides the cleric/paladin/druid there are invited members to witness this ceremony.
The Inconsistent Success from the Gods The wise claim never ask too much from the gods, best keep small specific requests. Average worshippers, with various demands from life, have around 4-8 Piety. Should their pleas be heard by the gods, the gods will grant a minor miracle that might be two levels above the worshiper in spells. A peasant cannot ask to the gods to kill a noble, but the noble could get a nasty cold from the request. Those with higher Piety Score can ask for grander things, but even then, the gods might send a servant such as a fiend or celestial instead of directly granting the plea. Then there is the fly in the ointment to all of this, the gods are inconsistent. They might fully request a low Piety worshiper with a grand gesture while minimizing one with a high Piety. One thing consistent with the gods is that grand actions comes with grand expectations. After all everything comes with a cost. The gods can place a Divine Calling on a worshipper that has gotten their attention. These callings are requests on the worshipper. The worshipper never suffers penalties or bonuses while ignoring or pursing them; but the outcome will affect their Piety in the end.
Doing the Math
If the average worshiper has 1-4 Piety Score, that means 1-4% of all pleas for Divine Intervention is successful when applying statistics. Take the city of Ot'birate with a population of 300,000. After a holiday held in the city, 3,000 of the population would have Divine Intervention. This might appear as a fireworks of impossibilities and a shredding reality through miracles; but no. First, not everyone in the city the same worshippers, so that could be cut down to 2,250. Second, most worshippers will want to avoid the Divine Calling risk, so they are not trying to game the system. This should reduce it by 1/2, making it only 1,125. Third, worshippers might only ask for Divine Intervention when truly troubled and desperate. This could also drop it by 1/2, making it 563. Of this 563, 2/3 are worshippers who are good and neutral which means their request are not destructive. leaving the 1/3 evil worshippers , 187, who are asking for malicious intervention; are they just petty personal gains or truly asking for upheaval of the status que?
Everything comes with a cost
The Outer Planes
Dolg has not developed a duality of good & evil between the Outer Planes. Each Outer Plane is considered as a heaven that exists for the benefit of the gods and their worshippers. Shure, the Outer Planes holds divine servants to the gods; such as celestials, yugoloths, devils, and demons within their heavenly realms; but they all serve the gods in one way or another. The Elemental Planes, Shadow Plane, and the Feywild all have their special role between the religions of Dolg. Aberrations are the unifying exceptions.
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